Your right size without measuring for online shopping

September 25, 2012 in Technology / Software

A group of PHD students from the Computer Vision Centre (Universitat Autònoma de Bacelona) have developed an app called Verisize with which you can know your right size for any brand and garment when buying online. This app can be easily integrated in any online store to help their customers estimate their sizes.

Sizing varies so much among brands that you can easily need different sizes for different brands. In online shopping, this means that the user often does not buy because of being afraid of choosing the wrong size or if they do, they end up returning the garment for not having chosen the right size.

Some online stores provide size charts to solve this problem. However, not all offer this service and in most cases, users don't have time, will or simply don't have a tape to measure themselves. The app has been created in Barcelona in the Computer Vision Centre, which has already developed other apps that have reached great success on the market. Its main objective is to reduce returns and increase customer satisfaction.

For the app to estimate your size, you just need to insert your height, weight and age and choose your body shape out of six possible profiles that the system provides, without ever measuring yourself or using complex sizing guides. The app processes the data and gives your right size for the garment and brand selected. The entire process takes a few seconds. It is currently available to be tested on its website: http://www.verisize.com/en/.

For its development, researchers have studied the anthropomorphic characteristics of more than 50,000 people of different complexions with which it has been possible statistical modelling of the human body. The mathematical model used works in a way that when a user inserts basic data (weight, height, age and complexion), a virtual mannequin that looks like the user is created. This mannequin is what permits knowing the size that best fits the garment that a user has chosen in an online store.

According to IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group), Association of the UK e-retail industry, returns in fashion online shopping ranges between 15% and 40% of transactions, which generates transport costs, brand's image deterioration and a drop in repeated sales. With this new app, the researchers were able to estimate an increase of up to 40% in operating margin and a 100% net margin in online clothing stores. Moreover, they see other benefits for both the online store and the customer, such as avoiding bad reputation due to negative feedback from a user or building trust and satisfaction among customers.